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STUDIES 


IN 


LAYAMON'S   VERSE 


A  THESIS  PRESENTED 

TO  THE   FACULTY  OF  THE  GRADUATE    DEPARTMENT 

OF  NEW  YORK  UNIVERSITY 

UPON   APPLICATION    FOR   THE    DEGREE   OF 

DOCTOR  OF  PHILOSOPHY 

BY 

SARAH  J.   McNARY. 
1902 


BALTIMORE 
J.    H.    FURST    COMPANY 
1904 


STUDIES 


IN 


LAYAMON'S   VERSE 


A  THESIS  PRESENTED 

TO  THE   FACULTY  OF  THE  GRADUATE    DEPARTMENT 

OF  NEW  YORK  UNIVERSITY 

UPON   APPLICATION   FOR   THE   DEGREE   OF 

DOCTOR  OF  PHILOSOPHY 

BY 

SARAH  J.  McNARY. 
1902 


BALTIMORE 
J.    H.    FURST   COMPANY 
1904 


125 


PREFATORY  NOTE. 


The  readings  of  ms.  Cott.  Otho.  C.  XII.  have  been  for  the  most 
part  disregarded,  because  Zessack  has  proved  that  it  is  not  a 
recension  of  MS.  Cott.  Calig.  A.  IX.,  as  Madden  supposed,  but  is 
derived  independently  from  a  common  original,  and  is  not  closely 
related  either  to  the  source  or  to  the  earlier  manuscript. 


296267 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE. 

Chapter  I.     Previous  Theories  of  L^amon's  Verse,      -        -  -          1 

Chapter  II.     L^amon's  Use  of  Alliteration  and  Rime,     -  6 

Chapter  III.     The  Metrical  Structure  of  the  Brut,  17 

Chapter  IV.     The  Influence  of  Waco, 25 

Conclusion,     -         ...- -36 


BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

Authorities  and  Texts. 

Arthur,  edited  by  F.  J.  Furnival,  Early  English  Text  Society 

Publications,  No.  2,  1864. 
Ten  Brink,  B. :  Geschichte  der  Englischen  Literatur.   Berlin,  1877. 
Altenglische  Literatur  (in  Paul's  Grundriss  der  German- 

ischen  Philologie,  Bd.  II,  p.  516).  Strassburg,  1893. 
Einenkel,  E.  :  J.  Schipper,  Englische  Metrik  in  historischer  und 

systematischer  Entwicklung  dargestellt  (in  Anglia,  Bd.  V, 

Anzeiger,  pp.  30,  111).     Halle,  1882. 

The  Life  of  Saint  Katherine.     EETS.  Pub.    London,  1884. 

Ellis,  A.  J.  :    On  Early  English  Pronunciation.     London,  1869. 
Article  on  Metrics  in  the  Transactions  of  the  Philological 

Society,  p.  442.     London,  1875-6. 
Foster,  T.  G.  :   Judith.     Studies  in  Metre,  Language  and  Style. 

Quellen  and  Forschungen  zur  Sprach-  und  Kulturgeschichte 

der  Germanischen  Volker,  LXXI.     Strassburg,  1892. 
Fragment  of  the  Song  of  Roland,  ed.  by  S.  Herrtage.     EETS. 

Pub.,  Extra  Series,  No.  XXXV.     London,  1875-6. 
Guest,  E. :   A   History  of  English   Rhythms.     A  new    edition, 

edited  by  the  Rev.  Walter  W.  Skeat.     London,  1880. 
Hali  Meidenhad,  ed.  by  Cockayne.     EETS.  Pub.,  No.  18. 
Heath,  H.  F. :    On  the  Old  English  Alliterative  Line  (in  Transac- 
tions of  the  Philological  Society,  1891-4). 
Keller,  W.  L.  :    Maistre  Wace,   eine   stylistische  Uutersuchung 

seiner  beiden  Roumane  Rou  und  Brut.     St.  Gallen,  1886. 
Kluge,   F.  :    Zur  geschichte  des  reinies  im  altgermanischen   (in 

Beitrage  zur  Geschichte  der  deutschen  Sprache  und  Littera- 

tur,  von  Paul  und  Braune,  Bd.  IX,  p.  422).     Halle,  1898. 
The  Lay  of  Havelok  the  Dane,  ed.  by  W.  W.  Skeat.     EETS. 

Pub.,  Extra  Series,  No.  IV.     London,  1868. 
de  Lincy,  Le  Roux  :    Le  Roman  de  Brut,   par  Wace,  avec  un 

Commentaire  et  des  Notes.     2  torn.     Rouen,  1836-8. 


viii  Bibliography. 

Luick,  K. :    Heimische  Metra  (in  Paul's  Grundriss  der  Gerrnan- 

isehen  Philologie,  Bd.  II,  p.  994).     Strassburg,  1893. 
Madden,  Sir  Frederic  :    La^anion's  Brut,  or  Chronicle  of  Britain. 

Three  Volumes.     London,  1847. 
Marsh,  G.  P.  :  The  Origin  and  History  of  the  English  Language. 

New  York  and  London,  1862. 
Menthel,  E.  :    Zur  Geschichte  des  Otfridschen  verses  im  Engli- 

schen  (in  Anglia,  Bd.  VIII,  Anzeiger,  p.  49).    Halle,  1885. 
Mitford,  W. :  An  Inquiry  into  the  Principles  of  Harmony  in  Lan- 
guage and  of  the  Mechanism  of  Verse,  Modern  and  Ancient. 

2d  edition.     London,  1874. 
Morley,  H. :  A  First  Sketch  of  English  Literature.   London,  1874. 
Le  Morte  Arthur,  ed.  by  F.  J.  Furnivall.     London,  1864. 
Paris,  Gaston:    Preface  de  la  Traduction  de  Le  Vers  Francais 

ancienne  et  moderne,  par  M.  Adolph  Tobler.      Paris,  1885. 
An  Old  English  Miscellany,  ed.  by  Rev.  R.  Morris.     EETS.  Pub. 

No.  49. 
Regel,  K. :    Die  alliteration  im  La^amon  (in  Germanistische  Stu- 

dien,  herausg.  von  Bartsch,  Bd.  I,  p.  172).     1872-5. 
Spruch  und  bild  im  La^amon  (in  Anglia,  Bd.  I,  p.  197)- 

Halle,  1878. 
The  Romance  of  Duke  Rowlande  and  of  Sir  Ottuell  of  Spaine, 

ed.  by  S.  Herrtage.     EETS.  Pub.  Extra  Series,  No.  xxxv. 

London,  1880. 
The  Romance  of  Otuel,  ed.  by  S.  Herrtage.     EETS.  Pub.  Extra 

Series,  No.  xxxix.     London,  1882. 
Seinte  Juliane,  ed.  by  Cockayne.     EETS.  Pub.  No.  51. 
Seinte  Marharete,  ed.  by  Cockayne.     EETS.  Pub.  No.  13. 
The  Sege  of  Melayne,  ed.  by  S.  Herrtage.     EETS.  Pub.  Extra 

Series,  No.  xxxv.     London,  1880. 
Sievers,  E. :  Altgermanische  Metrik  (in  Paul's  Grundriss  der  Ger- 

manischen  Philologie,  Bd.  II).     Strassburg,  1893. 
Schipper,  J.  :  Englische  Metrik,  in  historischer  und  systematischer 

Entwickelung  dargestellt.      Erster  Theil.  Altenglische  Me- 
trik.    Bonn,  1881. 
Grundriss  der  Englischen  Metrik  (Wiener  Beitriige  zur  Eng- 

lischen  Philologie,  von  Dr.  J.  Schipper,  Bd.  II).    Wien  und 

Leipzig,  1895. 


Bibliography.  ix 

Metrische  Randglossen  (in  Englische  Studien,  Bd.  IX.,  Mis- 

cellen,  p.  184;   Bd.  X,  Miscellen,  p.  187).    Heilbron,  1886, 

1887. 
Stephens,  T. :    The  Literature  of  the  Kymry.     London,  1876. 
The  Story  of  Genesis  and  Exodus,  ed.  by  Rev.  R.  Morris.    EETS. 

Pub.  No.  7.     London,  1876. 
Sweet,  H.  :   History  of  English  Sounds.     Oxford,  1888. 
Tobler,  A.  :   Le  Vers  Frangais  ancienne  et  moderne,  ....  traduit 

par  Karl  Breul  et  Leopold  Sudre.     Paris,  1885. 
Trautman,  H. :  Uber  La^amon's  vers  (in  Anglia,  Bd.  II,  p.  153). 

Halle,  1879. 
Zur  alt-  und  mittelenglischen  verslehre  (in  Anglia,  Bd.  V. 

Anzeiger,  p.  111).     Halle,  1882. 
Otfrid  in   England   (in  Anglia,  VII.   Anzeiger,    p.   211). 

Halle,  1884. 
Zur  kenntniss  des  altgermanischen  verses,  vornehmlich  des 

altenglischen  (in  Anglia,  Beiblatt  V.  p.  87).    Halle,  1894-5. 
Zur  kenntniss  und  geschichte  der  mittelenglischen  stabzeile 

(in  Anglia,  Bd.  XVIII,  p.  83).     Halle,  1896. 
Tyrwhitt,  T. :   Au  Essay  on  the   Language  and  Versification  of 

Chaucer. 
Wissmann,  T. :   King  Horn   (in  Quellen  und  Forschungen  zur 

Sprachgeschichte,  Bd.  XVI.).     Strassburg,  1876. 
Wiilcker,  R. :  Uber  die  quellen  des   La^amon   (in  Beitrage  zur 

Geschichte  der  deutschen  Sprache  und  Literatur,  von  Paul 

Braune,  Bd.  Ill,  p.  524).     Halle,  1878. 
Zessack,  A. :   Die  beiden  Handschriften  von  La^amon's  Brut  und 

ihr  Verhaltniss  zu  einander.     Inaugural  Dissertation.     Bres- 

lau,  1888. 


STUDIES   IN   LAYAMON'S  VERSE. 


Chapter   I. 

Previous  Theories  of  La^amon's  Verse. 

The  nature  and  sources  of  the  metrical  form  of  La^amon's  Brut 
have  been  the  subject  of  much  theorizing.  The  date  of  its  pro- 
duction, the  early  part  of  the  thirteenth  century,  at  once  suggests 
several  possibilities  as  to  the  derivation  of  the  verse ;  and  the 
length  of  the  poem,  32,241  lines,  and  the  apparent  irregularity, 
give  room  for  various  theories  and  generalizations. 

No  exhaustive  investigation,  however,  was  made  until  the  laws 
of  Old  English  verse  were  formulated.  Mitford,1  Tyrwhitt,2  Regel,3 
H.  Morley,4  ten  Brink 5  and  Wissmann 6  regard  the  metre  as  of 
O.  E.  origin.  Marsh7  finds  an  intermixture  of  the  A.  S.  and 
Norman  systems  of  versification.  A.  J.  Ellis8  calls  the  verse 
little  better  than  prose.  Madden 9  agrees  with  Guest 10  that  the 
riming  couplets  of  the  poem  were  formed  on  a  Latin  rhythm  with 
four  accents. 

The  more  recent  views11  concerning  La^amon  form  a  chapter  in 
the  history  of  the  war  of  Old  English  verse  theories  and  of  Middle 
English  word-accent.  Since  the  latter  play  so  prominent  a  part 
in  the  literature  of  our  subject,  a  brief  statement  of  them  may  not 
be  amiss. 


!p.  170.  6King  Horn,  p.  57.  9Vol.  I,  p.  xxv. 

2  p.  34.  7p.  441.  8p.  496.  10  pp.  406-16,  446-447. 

3  Germ.  Stud.  I,  p.  172.     Anglia  I,  p.  197. 
*p.  73-74. 

5Gesch.  der  Engl.  Lit.,  Vol.  I,  p.  237.     See  also  Paul's  Grundriss,  Vol.  II,  p. 
622.  u  Since  1876. 

1 


2  Studies  in  La  Ramon's  Verse. 

The  backbone  of  the  four-stress  theory  as  applied  to  Old 
English  verse  and  to  its  descendants  in  Middle  English  is  the 
well  known  law  of  Lachmann :  Every  syllable  immediately  fol- 
lowing a  long  syllable  or  a  short  unstressed  syllable,  receives  a 
subordinate  accent ;  and  every  syllable  following  a  stressed  short 
syllable  remains  unstressed. 

Inflectional  and  other  weak  endings  must  frequently  be  accented 
under  application  of  this  formula.  The  chief  argument  for  its 
enforcement  in  Middle  English  descendants  of  the  Old  English 
metre — and  this  is  the  only  kind  of  verse  in  which  anybody  tries 
to  enforce  it. — is  the  occurrence  in  such  poems  of  rimes  of  (a)  an 
inflectional  with  a  root  syllable,  and  (6)  two  inflectional  endings. 
Much  of  the  verse  formed  on  Romance  models l  takes  no  account 
of  the  law,  as  even  its  supporters  admit.  And  there  is  no  evi- 
dence that  it  was  observed  in  ordinary  speech. 

The  two-stress  theory  claims  that  ordinary  word-accent  and 
verse-accent  should  coincide ;  that  this  is  what  happened  in  Eng- 
lish imitations  of  Latin  and  French  rhythms,  or  the  new  metres 
would  not  have  been  intelligible  to  the  hearers ;  that  these  metres^ 
instead  of  accenting  weak  inflectional  endings  in  the  prescribed 
cases,  tend  to  obscure  and  elide  them ;  and  that  no  difference  can 
be  observed  between  such  endings  when  they  follow  a  long  sylla- 
ble, or  a  stressed  short  one.  Since  Lachmann's  law  does  not  apply 
to  these  rhythms,  to  attempt  to  make  the  alliterative  verse  conform 
to  it  is  illogical,  especially  since  the  two  kinds  of  metres  may  be 
found  in  a  single  poem,  as  in  the  Bestiarius.2  The  argument  from 
rime  is  answered  by  the  admission  that  unstressed  syllables,  alike 
in  verse  derived  from  Old  English  and  in  that  from  Romance 
sources,  were  rimed  from  Old  English  times  to  Shakespere,  though 
never  with  great  frequency.3 

The  advocates  of  the  four-stress  theory  have  uniformly  claimed 
that  in  La^amon  the  O.  E.  verse  laws  are  in  full  force,  and  that 
consequently  Lachmann's  law  of  verse-accent  is  still  observed. 

1  Wismann,  Anglia  V,  p.  476.    For  a  critique  of  this  theory,  see  Schipper,  Eng. 
Stud.  IX,  p.  186. 

2  Schipper,  Wien.  Beit.  II,  pp.  162-169. 
8  Schipper,  Eng.  Stud.  X,  pp.  196-201. 


Studies  in  Lazamon's  Verse.  3 

The  adherents  of  the  two-stress  theory  have  either  traced  La3a- 
mon's  verse  to  a  foreign  source ;  or  seen  in  it  the  O.  E.  types 
modified  slightly  or  to  a  considerable  extent  by  French  influence ; 
or  derived  it  from  the  older  Teutonic  verse  from  which  the  Old 
English  itself  was  developed. 

The  four-stress  theorists  have  not  done  much  detailed  investiga- 
tion of  this  work.  No  one  has  applied  ten  Brink's  O.  E.  types1 
to  the  Brut.  In  trying  to  establish  his  theory  of  word-accent, 
which  of  course  must  apply  to  La^amon,  Wissmann  gives  atten- 
tion chiefly  to  the  Ormidum  and  the  Poema  Morale  on  the  one 
hand,  and  King  Horn  on  the  other. 

The  first  of  the  avowed  two-stressers  to  classify  L^amon's 
metre  is  Trautmann.2  But  his  position  is  anomalous — or  was  so 
before  1895,  when  he  changed  his  entire  theory  of  O.  E.  verse 
and  became  a  four-stresser.  His  first  idea  was  that  the  Brut  gave 
evidence,  not  of  development  of  a  national  form,  but  of  derivation 
from  a  foreign  source — the  iambic  dimeter  acatalectic  of  the  Am- 
brosian  hymns.  To  secure  the  four  accents  which  this  verse 
demands,  he  was  forced  to  adopt  Lachmann's  law,  though  denying 
its  applicability  to  Old  English  or  to  prose  discourse.3  The  pecu- 
liarities in  the  treatment  of  unstressed  syllables 4  he  explained  by 
admitting  the  continuance  of  the  O.  E.  practice  in  that  particular. 
He  reached  his  conclusion  as  to  the  source  of  the  verse  by  claiming, 
in  every  important  case,  the  agreement  of  La^amon's  metre  with 
that  of  Otfrid,  which,  with  Wackernagel,  he  derived  from  the 
Latin.  In  a  later  article5  he  suggested  that  this  form  of  verse  in 
England  originated  in  direct  imitation  of  Otfrid  rather  than  of  the 
church  hymns.  His  recent  conversion  to  the  four-stress  theory,6 
however,  has  entirely  changed  this  view  of  origins.  He  now 
derives  directly  from  the  Old  English  the  verse  which  formerly 

haul's  Grundriss,  Vol.  II,  p.  516,  also  Heath,  Phil.  Soc.  Trans.,  1891-4,  p.  382. 

2AngliaII,  p.  153. 

s  He  distinguishes  verse-ictus  and  word-accent,  whence  it  is  to  be  presumed  that 
some  of  his  stresses  are  subordinate.  He  uses  the  same  stroke  (/)  for  all  alike. 
See  Anglia  V.  Anz.,  p.  111. 

*  (a)  The  omission  of  unstressed  syllables  in  one  or  more  feet  of  a  verse,  (b) 
The  use  of  two  unstressed  syllables  instead  of  one. 

5  Anglia  VII.  Anz.,  215,  « Anglia  Beiblatt  V  (1894-5),  p,  87. 


4  Studies  in  Lajamon's   Verse. 

he  sought  to  explain  in  other  ways.1  It  is  his  opinion  of  the 
source,  though,  and  not  the  characteristics  of  the  metre  in  question, 
which  is  affected  by  his  change  of  belief. 

Einenkel 2  supports  Trautniann's  first  view  as  to  the  nature  and 
origin  of  La^amon's  verse.  The  number  of  cases  of  inflectional 
syllables  riming  either  with  like  syllables  or  with  monosyllabic 
words,  and  the  fact  that  the  syllables  in  question  are  only  those 
regarded  by  the  Lachmann  law  as  capable  of  bearing  accent,  are 
proofs  to  him  of  the  observance  of  that  law.  The  rime  was  devel- 
oped, he  claims,  from  the  riming  of  end-syllables  first,  and  of  root- 
syllables  later.  The  position  of  the  alliterative  letters  in  the  line 
is  an  additional  proof  of  the  existence  of  four  stresses. 

Menthel3  examined  1500  lines  from  various  parts  of  the  poem. 
The  results  support  Trautniann's  statement  as  to  accented  syllables, 
and  give  the  proportional  occurrence  of  each  peculiarity. 

Sweet 4  also  follows  Trautmann's  view  in  the  main.  "  In  the 
M.  E.  four-stress  metre,  syllables  that  are  quite  stressless  in  ordi- 
nary speech  can  in  verse  take  the  full  stress  required  by  the 
metre." 

The  chief  upholder  of  the  two-stress  theory  of  the  origin  of  the 
metre  of  the  Brut  is  Schipper.  In  his  earlier  work 5  he  asserts 
strenuously  that  the  prevailing  rhythm  is  the  two-stressed  half-line. 
Though  occasional  lines,  when  read  singly,  seem  to  conform  to  a 
different  rhythm,  when  read  in  connection  with  a  long  passage 
they  fall  into  the  general  scheme.  These  longer  lines,  some  with 
three,  some  apparently  with  four  accents,  suggest  the  possibility 
that  the  short  rimed  couplet  may  have  developed  from  the  two- 
stressed  verse  by  the  emphasizing  of  a  subordinate  accent  in  the 
several-syllabled  Senkung.  In  La^amon,  however,  the  secondary 
accent  retains  its  subordinate  place.  Though  the  French  model 
may  have  come  before  the  poet's  eyes,  it  is  his  own  national  line 
that  prevails.  Long  lines  with  a  single  alliterating  word  in  each 
half-line  are  to  be  met  most  frequently.     La^amon's  work  is  a 

1  Anglia  XVIII,  p.  96,  foot-note. 

2  Anglia  V,  Anz.,  p.  30.     E.  E.  T.  S.,  80,  pp.  xxi-xxxix. 

8  Anglia  VIII,  Anz.,  p.  49.  4p.  163. 

6  Altenglische  Metrik,  p.  146. 


Studies,  in  Lajamon's  Verse.  5 

battle-ground  between  alliteration  and  rime,  but  it  is  the  allitera- 
tion which  conquers. 

Luick,1  though  an  adherent  of  the  two-stress  view  of  O.  E. 
poetry,  instead  of  deriving  L^amon's  verse  directly  from  that 
source,  connects  it  more  closely  with  the  eight-stressed  Germanic 
Gesangvers,  which  he  thinks  must  have  survived  in  folk-literature. 
This  long  line  in  La^amon  and  similar  verse  became  broken  by 
the  rime  into  two  lines,  and  thus  developed  the  national  rime-verse. 
It  is  more  measured  (taktierend}  than  the  O.  E.  metre.  Though 
Luick  does  not  expressly  accept  the  law  of  Lachmann,  his  system 
of  accenting  virtually  follows  it.2  Each  line  contains  two  princi- 
pal and  two  subordinate  accents.  Their  relation  to  O.  E.  verse  is 
shown  by  the  fact  that  they  follow  five  types  resembling  those  of 
Sievers.3  There  are  also  lines  which  may  be  considered  as  modeled 
after  the  old  form.  These  may  be  accounted  for  by  the  immediate 
influence  of  the  Old  English  verse  or  survivals  of  it.4  The  rime 
in  La^amon  has  quite  superseded  the  alliteratiou,  which  is  used 
merely  as  ornament. 

In  his  second  work,  Schipper5  accepts  Luick's  claim  for  the 
grouping  of  the  verse  into  types  based  on  those  of  Sievers,  but  he 
criticises  Luick's  formulation  of  those  types,  rejecting  those  which 
demand  a  secondary  accent,  either  at  the  end  or  within  the  line,  on 
such  inflectional  endings  as  -e,  -es,  -en,  -er.  He  bases  this  rejec- 
tion on  evidence  drawn  from  La^amon's  rimes,  which,  except  in  a 
few  unimportant  cases,  take  account  of  the  stem  syllable  and  dis- 
regard the  endings.  Luick's  theory  of  the  origin  of  the  verse  he 
also  rejects,  because  no  traces  of  the  old  Germanic  Gesangvers 
remain,  because  La^amon's  metre  can  be  immediately  related  to 
O.  E.  forms,  and  because  the  growing  influence  of  AVace  can  be 
traced  in  the  Brut  in  both  verse-structure  and  rime. 

The  change  in  Schipper's  ideas  consists  in  the  admission  of  a 
more  perceptible  French  influence,  and  in  the  recognition  of  addi- 
tional accents  in  the  Old  English  forms  as  developed  by  La3  anion. 

1  Paul's  Grundriss,  Vol.  II,  p.  994.  2P.  u.  B.  Beit.  X,  p.  209. 

3  See  especially  Paul's  Grundriss,  II,  p.  1002. 

*  Luick  divides  M.  E.  verse  into  two  classes,  one  derived  immediately  from  O.  E. , 
the  other  from  the  Gesangvers.  5  Wien.  Beit.  2,  p.  57. 


Studies  in  La^amon's   Verse. 


Chaptee  II. 

La^amon's  Use  of  Alliteration  and  Rime. 

It  is  in  the  rime  of  the  Brut  especially  that  four-stresser  and 
two-stresser  alike  find  their  strongest  arguments ;  and  it  is  this 
element  of  the  poem  that  most  vitally  helps  to  determine  La^a- 
mon's  method  of  composition  and  the  source  of  his  verse.  The 
length  of  the  work,  and  the  evidence  of  change  in  the  poet's  tech- 
nique revealed  by  a  mere  cursory  reading  of  different  parts  of  the 
three  volumes,  necessitate  long  and  careful  statistical  examination 
before  conclusions  can  be  trustworthy.  The  weakness  of  previous 
theories  lies  in  the  fact  that  they  are  not  based  on  extensive  inves- 
tigation. The  present  study  aims  to  show  the  significance  of  La^a- 
mon's  use  of  alliteration,  to  determine  the  function  of  rime  in  his 
verse ;  to  discover  to  what  influences  his  technique  was  indebted ; 
and  by  deciding,  as  far  as  this  poem  is  concerned,  the  vexed  ques- 
tion of  Middle  English  word-accent,  to  make  as  sure  a  basis  as 
possible  for  a  theory  of  his  metre. 

The  quality  of  La^amon's  alliteration  has  been  noted  to  some 
extent  by  Schipper  and  Kegel.1  Strictly  correct  alliterating  long 
lines  (with  two  alliterating  letters  in  the  first,  and  one  in  the  second 
half-verse)  are  to  be  found,  Schipper  asserts,  "  oft  genug."  Quite 
as  often  the  last  of  the  three  letters  is  in  the  last  stress  of  the  second 
half-verse.  "  Oefters  alliterieren  auch  die  zwei  Hebungen  des 
zweiten  Halb verses  mit  einer  des  ersten."  "  Nicht  minder  oft " 
all  four  of  the  stressed  syllables  alliterate,  either  with  the  same 
letter,  or  with  different  letters  variously  placed.  The  most  fre- 
quent of  all  is  the  single  letter  in  each  line. 

1  Alteng.  Met.,  pp.  150-153.     Germ.  Stud.  I,  pp.  172  ff. 


Studies  in  La^amon's   Verse.  7 

Regel's  investigation  has  to  do  with  the  occurrence  in  the  Brut 
of  the  old  alliterative  formulas,  rather  than  with  the  position  of 
the  alliterative  letters  in  the  line. 

"With  the  foregoing  statements  may  be  compared  the  following 
tabulation  and  its  conclusions  : 


TABLE  I. 
Placing  of  Alliterative  Letters. 

Number  of  lines  examined,         -------  5, 000 

(1000-2000,  2000-3000,  13,000-14,000,  15,000-16,000,  30,000-31,000) 

Total  cases  of  alliteration,  ....  1570=63  per  cent. 

Strictly  correct  alliterating  long  lines,  ...         75=4.7       " 

First  half-line  regular,  third  alliterating  letter  on  last  stress 

of  second  half -line,  ....  40=2.5       " 

One  letter  in  first,  2  in  second  half- line,  ...        90=5. 7       ' ' 

Two  letters  in  'each  half- line,         ....  173=11        " 

One  letter  in  each  half-line, 1134=72.2     " 

These  results  reveal  a  notable  departure  from  the  O.  E.  laws  of 
alliteration.  So  far  as  the  junction  of  short  liues  into  couplets  is 
concerned,  La3amon  seems  to  have  felt  any  combination  of  alliter- 
ating letters  permissible.  The  distinction  between  the  first  and 
second  half-lines,  which  in  the  old  verse  led  to  so  careful  an  avoid- 
ance of  more  than  one  letter  in  the  second,  he  quite  disregarded. 
But  with  all  this  freedom,  alliteration  in  the  Brut  has  not  forgotten 
its  old  function  as  a  means  of  binding  together  the  two  short  lines. 

But  to  admit  this  fact  is  not  to  decide  whether  La^amon  is  to  be 
classed  as  a  distinctly  alliterative  poet  or  not.  A  comparison  of 
the  practice  of  other  poets  of  his  own  time  and  of  the  following 
centuries  will  help  to  establish  a  conclusion. 


Studies  in  La^amon's  Verse. 


TABLE  II. 
Comparison  of  Alliteration  and  Kime  in  Other  Poems. 


Date. 

Form. 

.2  » 

£3     <d 
S 

"3  -S 

♦J 

a  2 
"3  a 

60 

"3  "Eb 

00 

1  * 

o 

The  Proverbs  of  Alfred, 

1175 

64  1>  couplets. 

22 

82 

18 

Genesis  and  Exodus, 

1250 

couplets. 

47.2 

28 

75.2 

24.8 

King  Horn, 

c.  1250  [ms.] 

(i 

11 

21 

32 

68 

Havelok, 

c.  1280 

a 

38 

41.8 

79.8 

20.2 

Song  of  Poland, 

1430-40  [ms.] 

a 

66.4 

66.4 

33.6 

Pouland  and  Vernagu 

c.  1330  [ms.] 

121  stanzas 

11.2 

11.2 

88.8 

Otuel, 

c.  1330  [ms.] 

couplets 

17 

17 

83 

Duke  Powlande  and 

Sir  Otuell, 

1430-40  [ms.] 

121  stanzas 

32.4 

32.4 

67.6 

Arthur, 

1428 

couplets 

19 

12.4 

31.4 

68.6 

Sege  off  Melayne, 

1430-40  [ms.] 

12  1.  stanzas 

35.1 

35.1 

64.9 

Le  Morte  Arthur 

(Furnivall,  1864), 

15  c  (?) 

81.       " 

9.5 

37.5 

47 

53 

From  these  results  we  may  see  that,  while  individual  poets  vary- 
widely  in  their  use  of  alliteration  and  rime,  the  Proverbs  of  Alfred 
and  Genesis  and  Exodus,  nearly  contemporary  with  the  Brut,  have 
a  larger  per  cent,  of  alliteration,  while  the  15th  century  Roland 
still  has  practically  as  large  a  per  cent.  Again,  Rouland  and  Ver- 
nagu and  Otuel,  both  early,  have  a  small  per  cent.,  while  the 
remaining  poems,  ranging  from  the  13th  to  the  15th  century,  have 
about  half  as  much  alliteration  as  the  Brut  {Le  Morte  Arthur,  two- 
thirds).  These  poems,  it  should  be  noted,  are  all  rimed,  so  that 
there  can  be  no  question,  except  in  the  case  of  the  Proverbs  of 
Alfred,  resembling  the  Brut  metrically,  as  to  the  subordinate  func- 
tion of  the  alliteration.  As  compared  with  them,  the  Brut  does 
not  use  alliteration  to  a  sufficient  extent  to  justify  its  classification 
as  an  alliterative  rather  than  a  riming  poem. 

Whether  La3amon  as  a  whole  preferred  rime  as  a  means  of 
uniting  the  short  lines,  and  how  his  practice  varied  in  different 
parts  of  his  work,  are  shown  conclusively  in  the  following  table. 
The  estimate,  so  far  as  rime  is  concerned,  is  somewhat  conserva- 
tive. End-syllable  rimes  as  a  rule  have  not  been  admitted,  except 
where  alliteration  seemed  to  bring  the  root-syllables  also  toward 


Studies  in  Lajamon's  Verse.  9 

intentional  comparison.      A  less  "conservative    treatment  would 
merely  emphasize  the  conclusion. 

TABLE  III. 

Proportion  of  Alliteration  and  Kime. 


Lines. 

Allit, 

without 

Rime. 

Allit. 
Rime. 

Rime 
■without 
Allit, 

Neither 

Allit. 

nor  Rime. 

Total. 
Allit. 

Total 
Rime. 

1-  1,000 

162 

242 

72 

15 

404 

314 

1,000-  2,000 

122 

248 

109 

15 

370 

357 

2,000-  3,000 

98 

258 

116 

26 

356 

374 

3,000-  4,000 

73 

276 

136 

12 

349 

412 

4,000-  5,000 

60 

309 

110 

10 

369 

419 

5,000-  6,000 

65 

306 

113 

14 

371 

419 

6,000-  7,000 

80 

234 

163 

18 

314 

397 

7,000-  8,000 

54 

280 

154 

9 

334 

434 

12,000-13,000 

54 

258 

174 

9 

312 

432 

13,000-14,000 

42 

248 

200 

11 

290 

448 

14,000-15,000 

57 

252 

180 

6 

309 

432 

15,000-16,000 

72 

260 

158 

8 

332 

418 

16,000-17,000 

89 

288 

111 

10 

377 

399 

17,000-18,000 

46 

268 

17S 

8 

364 

446 

18,000-19,000 

52 

216 

221 

10 

268 

437 

19,000-20,000 

70 

269 

147 

13 

339 

416 

20,000-21,000 

92 

263 

133 

12 

355 

396 

26,000-27,000 

34 

336 

125 

5 

370 

461 

30,000-31,000 

34 

310 

150 

2 

344 

460 

31,000-32,000 

15 

309 

170 

6 

324 

479 

6,761 


8,440 


The  most  obvious  conclusion  from  this  table  is  expressed  in  the 
two  totals  of  alliteration  and  rime.  The  latter  is  in  excess  by 
1,679  cases.  In  other  words,  67.6  fy  of  the  20,000  lines  show 
alliteration,  while  rime  appears  in  84.4  c/0.  It  is  evident  where 
the  poet's  preference  lay. 

The  reason  for  the  difference  between  this  result  and  the  conclu- 
sions reached  by  Schipper l  and  Regel 2  is  partly  because  of  the 
greater  number  of  lines  here  examined,  for  both  critics  show  as 
much  latitude  in  the  admission  of  rimes  as  was  permitted  in  this 


^lteng.  Met.,  pp.  150-153, 


2  Germ.  Stud.  I.,  p.  160. 


10  Studies  in  La$amon,s  Verse. 

case,  Regel   even  granting  the  riming  of  end-syllables.      Their 

results  also  depend  partly  on  the  section  of  the  work  from  which 

they  drew  their  extracts.     The  table  shows  a  curious  variation  in 

the  proportion  of  alliteration  and  rime.     While  on  the  whole  the 

alliteration  tends  to  decrease  and  the  rime  to  increase,  the  latter 

reaching  its  highest  point  at  the  end  of  the  poem,  the  alliteration 

is  at  its  minimum  at  lines  18,000-19,000  instead  of  at  the  end, 

where  we  should  expect  it. 

It  is  by  no  means  easy  to  determine  exactly  what  La^amon's  ear 

•   / 
accepted  as  rime.     Schipper  admits  as  rimes  such  cases  as  layen  : 

/  /  /  ,    .         !  , 

londe1  14,339-40  ;  scipe  :  brohte  14,862-3;  freondscipe  :  seoluen 

1 5,226-7.  But  in  the  following  words  Einenkel 2  hears  rime  only  in 
the  last  or  inflectional  syllables  and  not  in  the  root-syllables :  hauene : 
haeleSe  28,432-3  ;  ihale^ed  :  ifuh^ed  29,433-4  ;  clerekes  :  hokeres 
29,789-90  ;  sechien  :  susteren  28,782-3  ;  iheled  :  neoSered  29,- 
991-2 ;  baluwen  :  ileoten  31,306-7.  And  these  he  classes  as 
rimes  of  monosyllables  with  inflectional  endings :  bliSe-mod  :  iblissed 
29,701-2  ;  aerd  :  bidaeled  12,742-3  ;  iset :  isemed  27,430-1. 

In  his  clasification  of  the  rimes  of  King  Horn  Wissman  allows 
such  words  as  softe  :  brihte,  to  rime  on  the  root-syllables  as  well  as 
on  the  endings,  though  his  principles  of  accent  accept  the  merely 
inflectional  syllable  rimes.  According  to  Wissman' s  classification, 
therefore,  the  words  mentioned  from  Einenkel,  as  well  as  those 
from  Schipper,  can  be  regarded  as  full  though  of  course  imperfect 
rimes.3  Examples  are  :  pure  rimes,  riht :  pliht  5043-4  ;  broker  : 
ofter  5,017-8  ;  only  root-syllable  perfect,  Lundene  :  punde  5,119 
-20  ;  assonant,  orn  :  nom  5,009-10  ;  clupte  :  custe  5,011-2  ;  con- 
sonant, kene  :  idone  5,287-8  ;  impure  vowel  and  consonant,  richer 
aefter  5,566-7  ;  leode  :  londe  5,239-40  ;  monosyllables  with  root- 
syllables,  Rome-wal  ronwalden,  folc  :comen  5,556-7,  blod  :bsedde 

1  The  stroke  (/)  refers  of  course  to  accent. 

51  E.  E.  T.  S.,  80,  pp.  xxi  fit. 

8  King  Horn,  p.  53.  Cf.  examples  of  imperfect  rimes  in  Judith  (edited  by  A. 
S.  Cook,  p.  lxx),  hund:wand  110,  herewaethan  :  onwrlthan  173,  fymgeflitu  : 
swyrdum  264,  geheawum  :  beheafdod  289,  fleam  :  eacen  292a  293a,  sceacen  :  feaht 
292,  sigorlean  :  geleafan  345,  laeg  :  gesaeged  294. 


Studies  in  Lcqamon's   Verse  11 

18,980-1,  munt :  strengSe  5,530-3;  monosyllables  with  end-syl- 
lables, men  :  biwunnen  5,608-9,  mon:speken  31,024-5. 

Mr.  B.  S.  Monroe,  in  a  recent  study,1  has  decided  that  the  spell- 
ing of  the  Brut  is  not  phonetic.  The  diversity  of  characters  in 
some  cases  found  to  represent  a  single  sound,  in  Mr.  Monroe's 
table,2  indicates  that  a  pair  of  words  may  be  far  from  riming  to  the 
eye,  or  to  the  ear  trained  in  O.  E.  and  M.  E.  pronunciation,  and 
yet  they  may  have  been  true  rimes  to  La^amon. 

In  view  of  the  foregoing  opinions,  the  following  tables  will  be 
seen  to  be  conservative. 

TABLE  IV. 
Various  Kinds  of  Rime, 
1  2         345  6789        10      11 


m 

Monosyl- 

Monosyl- 

- h 

a 

0> 

a 

«a 

»3 

11 

aj 

£t=  a 
ot_  a 

lable 
and  Root. 

lable  and 
End  syl- 

<a 

3  £ 

—  — 

(2 

M 

-  -     • 

lable. 

LINES. 

a 
£ 

3 

fe»T- 

si 

a 

C3 

a 
o 

a 
3 

a 
o 

a 

o 

^1 

gag 

||| 

o  3  3 

s>  a. S 

«  £  « 
a.d."S 

a  o^ 

3 

--— 
u 

V 

a. 

a 

-          — 

a3      a 

Ph 

«  3 

< 

O 

«u-3 

W^   tf 

Ph  oa 

Ph 

»-) 

Ph             m 

5,000-  6,000 

106 

44 

99 

34 

25 

57 

31 

3 

23 

2        2 

18,000-19,000 

191 

29 

88 

48 

20 

36 

19 

9 

19 

6 

31,000-32,000 

150 

4 

113 

58 

28 

37 

64 

9 

9       10 

This  table  is  of  value  as  an  aid  in  criticising  the  computations 
of  rime  throughout  this  work.  It  indicates  where  errors  may  have 
been  made  by  admitting  too  imperfect  resemblances  as  rime ;  and 
it  also  shows  that,  however  rigid  the  exclusion  may  be,  the  number 
of  possible  rejections  is  so  small  (columns  5  and  6)  that  they 
would  only  slightly  affect  any  given  total.3 

That  L^arnon's  use  of  rime  was  intentional  and  studied,  is 

1  Studies  in  the  Phonology  and  Vocabulary  of  La^amon's  Brut     Thesis  for  the 

Doctorate,  Cornell  University,  1901.     Not  published. 

2E.  g. 

O.  E.  Sound.  Lajamon. 


3.j   26)   CJtj   O 

a(o) 

a,  o,  a?,  e,  ea,  eo 

e,  eo 

e  (?o) 

e,  a,  le,  ea,  eo 

e  +  g 

ei 

ei,  sei,  ai 

a 

a  >  o 

a,  a?,  eo,  o 

3  Rimes  noted  in  columns  7,  9,  11,  have  been  disregarded  in  all  other  estimates 
in  this  work. 


12 


Studies  in  Layimon's  Verse. 


proved  by  a  study  of  his  interpolations.  If  much  of  his  rime  is 
due  to  unconscious  rather  than  conscious  imitation,  it  would  prob- 
ably decrease  when  he  added  to  Wace  material  invented  by  himself 
or  derived  from  another  source,  unless,  indeed,  that  source  was 
also  in  riming  form.  Extended  interpolations,  each  of  25  lines  or 
more  in  length,  have  been  examined,  selected  from  9000  lines  of 
the  poem,  and  forming  a  total  of  1396  lines.  Of  these  35  °fo  are 
rimed  without  alliteration.  Of  the  9000  continuous  lines  from 
which  these  interpolations  were  taken,  only  15  %  show  non-alliter- 
ated rime.  Scarcely  a  single  line  of  the  interpolations  is  rimeless. 
Sometimes  an  almost  continuously  rimed  passage,  with  comparatively 
little  alliteration,  may  be  noted  in  the  expansions  or  additions. 

The  number  of  j^actically  continuous  passages  throughout  the 
poem,  which  employ  the  same  method  of  uniting  the  short  lines, 
whether  alliteration  and  rime,  or  rime  without  alliteration,  is  not 
insignificant.  It  is  noticeable  that  more  than  five  consecutive 
merely  alliterative  lines  never  occur,  while  there  are  passages  of 
from  fifteen  to  forty  alliterative-rimed  lines,  and  some  merely  rimed 
passages  from  ten  to  fifteeen  lines  in  length.  The  longest  con- 
tinuous passages  are  at  the  end  of  the  poem. 

TABLE  V. 
Passages  Connected  by  either  Eime  or  Eime  and  Alliteration. 


Aim, 

without 
Rime. 

Alliteration 

and 

Rime. 

Rime  without 
Alliteration. 

Total  No. 
connected 
passages. 

LINES. 

3-5 
lines. 

3-8 
lines. 

8  + 
lines. 

Total. 

Number 
lines  in 
longest 
passage. 

3-8 
lines. 

8  + 
lines. 

Total. 

No.  of 
lines  in 
longest. 

1-  1,000 

14 

32 

8 

40 

(14) 

2 

2 

(4) 

56 

1,000-  2,000 

13 

26 

5 

31 

17) 

30) 

10 

10 

(4V 

54 

5,000-  6,000 

2 

23 

12 

35 

12 

12 

(4) 

49 

12,000-13,000 
14,000-15,000 

1 

2 

32 
32 

7 
8 

39 
40 

16) 
16 

19 

36) 

40) 

22 

21 

4 
3 

26 
24 

(10) 
(15) 

11 

12) 

17 

66 
66 

18,000-19,000 
26,000-27,000 

2 
0 

26 
15 

5 
14 

31 
29 

30 
11 

6 
1 

36 
27 

69 
41 

31,000-32,000 

0 

20 

15 

35 

( 

25 

4 

29 

64 

A  theory  of  the  process  by  which  Laaamon  gained  his  technique 
has  been  growing  with  eveiy  new  detail  in  this  investigation.     A 


Studies  in  Layamon's  Vertitr  13 

further  examination  of  one  of  the  classes  of  rimes  in  Table  IV 
will  advance  far  toward  the  conclusion.  The  single  class  of  rimes 
not  noted  by  the  critics  quoted  on  p.  10  was  that  in  column  6  — 
words  riming  only  through  alliteration.  The  ground  for  consider- 
ing such  words  rimes  at  all  is  their  frequent  occurrence,  especially 
in  the  first  part  of  the  Brut,  and  evidently  of  set  purpose. 


TABLI 

!  VI. 

Kelation 

BETWEEN    ALLITERATION    AND 

KlME. 

LINES. 

Number  cases 

allit.  of 

last  words. 

Number  good 
rimes  among 
these. 

Per  cent,  good  rin 
among  last  lette 
allit  words. 

1-  1,000 

99 

38 

38  per  cent. 

5,000-  6,000 

88 

37 

42 

12,000-13,000 

43 

16 

37 

18,000-19,000 

46 

28 

60        " 

26,000-27,000 

92 

69 

75        " 

31,000-32,000 

62 

53 

85 

As  we  have  already  seen  (Table  III),  rime  was  increasing  from 
the  beginning  to  the  end  of  the  poem,  while  alliteration  was 
decreasing.  The  percentages  in  the  last  column  of  the  above 
table  indicate  how  one  form  was  merged  into  the  other.  It  was 
partly  through  the  capping  of  the  half-lines  by  words  alike  only 
in  their  initial  letters  that  L^anion's  conception  of  similarity  of 
sound  was  developed,  and  his  skill  in  the  use  of  it  was  gradually 
attained. 

These  statistics  of  rime  and  alliteration  give  many  indications  of 
the  process  by  which  La^amon  learned  his  technique.  Of  the 
alliterative  possibilities  of  his  own  language  he  availed  himself 
with  careless  freedom,  perhaps  often  almost  with  indifference,  for 
the  other  similarities  of  sound  were  a  greater  pleasure  to  his  ear, 
and  it  was  these  on  the  whole  that  he  employed  with  the  most  con- 
scious effort.  The  laws  of  rime  he  knew  at  first  very  imperfectly. 
The  acquaintance  with  the  Latin  hymns  and  with  the  rhetorical 
writings  of  Bede,  which  may  have  come  to  him  as  a  part  of  his 
priestly  training,  had  not  taught  him  these  laws,  nor  had  the 
Welsh  poetry  that  was  probably  often  heard  in  the  region  around 
the  Severn.     The  change  in  his  methods  during  the  course  of  the 


14  Studies  in  La^amon's  Verse. 

Brut  controverts  the  theory  of  the  survival  of  a  national  rime- 
verse.  If  there  had  been  such  a  verse,  as  Luick  believes,  La^a- 
mon  would  have  known  its  form  from  the  beginning.  But  he  had 
to  learn  to  rime,  as  the  early  men  in  every  nation  learn,  feeling 
through  assonances  and  stumbling  over  consonances,  not  unsatisfied 
with  a  half-word  rime,  and  sometimes  bringing  more  than  two 
words  into  a  pleasant  jingle  of  similarity.  The  rate  of  his  progress 
is  indicated  in  Table  III,  in  the  numbers  registering  his  use  of 
alliteration  and  rime  throughout  the  poem,  and  in  Table  V,  which 
tells  how  he  gradually  came  to  use  longer  passages  joined  through- 
out by  the  same  means  of  union.  It  will  be  noticed  that  the 
difference  between  the  same  successive  thousands  is  not  great. 
It  will  also  be  observed  that  the  most  noticeable  point  is  that 
represented  by  lines  18,000  to  19,000.  Table  IV  shows  that 
the  highest  number  of  pure  rimes  occurred  there.  Table  V 
records  that  the  number  of  continuous  passages  of  the  same  form 
as  to  rime  and  alliteration  also  reached  its  maximum  in  that  part 
of  the  poem. 

This  peculiarity  invites  further  investigation.  Certainly  it  might 
be  expected  that  rime  should  increase  in  amount  and  in  excellence 
to  the  end  of  the  poem,  and  that  alliteration  should  decrease. 
Three  explanations  suggest  themselves.  1.  Possibly  for  the  first 
19,000  lines  La3amon's  effort  to  acquire  skill  in  the  use  of  rime 
was  relatively  great.  Then,  feeling  fairly  satisfied  with  the  result 
of  his  labors,  he  may  have  relaxed  his  efforts  somewhat,  with  the 
result  shown  in  the  tables  —  an  increase  in  the  alliteration,  and  a 
decrease  in  the  excellence,  though  not  in  the  amount,  of  his  rime. 
2.  Or  possibly  he  did  not  write  the  poem  in  consecutive  order, 
and  liucs  18,000-19,000  represent  his  latest  and  therefore  most 
excellent  workmanship.  But  this  supposition  is  weakened  by  the 
testimony  of  Table  VI,  which  by  the  regularity  of  succession 
indicates  continuity  of  composition.  3.  Or  possibly  the  prepon- 
derance of  rime  in  this  particular  place  may  give  some  clue  to  the 
character  of  the  unknown  sources  of  the  material  which  La^amon 
added  to  Wace.  The  passage  in  question  deals  with  the  Arthur 
story,  and  it  is  to  this  story  that  La^amon  made  the  most  signifi- 
cant additions.     It  is  not  the  province  of  this  study  to  pursue 


Studies  in  La^amon's  Verse.  15 

such  an  investigation.  It  is  bound,  however,  not  to  disregard  the 
fact  that  the  unknown  sources  may  have  been  Celtic,1  and  that 
Welsh  verse  was  intricately  rimed.2 

All  the  statistics  indicate  that  the  evidence  of  rime  as  to  word- 
accent  may  be  accepted  with  a  fair  degree  of  confidence,  since 
La^amon  used  rime  consciously,  not  as  a  mere  ornament,  but  as  a 
means  of  joining  his  couplets.  What  information  may  be  obtained 
from  the  rime  as  to  the  treatment  of  the  end-syllable  ?  Previous 
investigators,  as  we  have  seen,  are  at  variance.  Einenkel 3  states 
that  they  occur  frequently  ;  Schipper,4  that  they  are  very  infrequent 
and  open  to  question ;  Menthel 5  asserts  that  they  form  25  per 
cent,  of  the  rimes  at  the  beginning,  and  50  per  cent,  at  the  end  of 
the  poem.  Table  YII  confirms  the  fact  of  the  increase,  but  differs 
from  Menthel's  percentages.  These  rimes  form  only  3^  per  cent, 
of  the  rimes  in  the  first  thousand  lines,  and  13J  per  cent,  of  those 
in  the  last  thousand. 


TABLE 

VII. 

Rimes  of  Inflectional  Endings. 

LINES. 

Rimes  of  Inflec- 
tional 
syllables. 

Monosyl. 
with  root 
of  dissyl. 

Monosyl. 

with  inflect. 

ending. 

2  root  syls 
but  not 
endings. 

1-  1,000 

11 

29 

7 

39 

5,000-  6,000 

16 

13 

4 

44 

12,000-13,000 

12 

11 

4 

47 

18,000-19,000 

19 

23 

6 

29 

26,000-27,000 

18 

7 

11 

23 

31,000-32,000 

64 

9 

19 

4 

The  conclusion  must  be  stated  with  a  large  if.  The  number  of 
apparent  inflectional-ending  rimes  is  so  small  that  it  is  by  no 
means  certain  that  La^amon  intended  them  as  rimes  at  all.  If  he 
did  not,  the  conclusion  as  to  word-accent  established  by  this  table 
is  only  strengthened.  If  he  used  them  consciously,  their  decrease 
from  the  beginning  to  the  end  is  very  significant.  When  he  was 
yet  unskilled,  and  was  willing  to  accept  almost  anything  as  rime, 

iWiilcker,  P.  u.  B.  Beit.  Ill,  p.  524. 

Stephens,  pp.  484-9.  4Wien.  Beit.  2,  p.  63. 

5E.  E.  T.  S.  80,  pp.  xxi  ff.  5  Anglia  VIII,  Anz.  p.  49. 


16  Studies  in  La^amon's  Verse. 

it  seldom  occurred  to  him  to  rime  inflectional  endings.  If  these 
endings  were  ever  accented  in  ordinary  speech,  or  in  O.  E.  verse 
and  its  descendants,  with  which  he  was  certainly  familiar,  it  would 
seem  strange  that  he  did  not  more  readily  avail  himself  of  these 
very  easy  and  numerous  similarities.  He  at  least  did  not  develop 
his  knowledge  of  rime  by  using  them,  as  Einenkel  believes.1  He 
seems  to  have  had  a  marked  preference,  at  first  at  any  rate,  for 
root-syllable  rimes  over  other  irregular  forms.  It  is  not  difficult 
to  account  for  such  an  increase  in  end-syllable  rimes  without 
resorting  to  Lachmann's  law.  The  change  in  accent  tendency,  by 
which  these  rimes  would  come  more  and  more  into  the  poet's  use, 
may  well  be  due  to  the  French  example.  That  L^amon  should 
have  perceived  the  possibility  of  throwing  an  accent  upon  the  last 
syllable  of  English  words,  as  he  saw  it  so  constantly  done  in 
French,  is  not  unnatural. 

The  conclusion  to  which  this  tends  is  that  the  Schipper  theory  of 
word  accent  is  the  one  most  nearly  in  accordance  with  L^arnon's 
practice.  Weak  inflectional  syllables  were  not  stressed  in  daily 
speech,  whatever  may  have  been  the  quantity  of  the  preceding 
syllables.  The  prominence  which  they  sometimes  acquire  by  their 
employment  in  rimes  is  only  momentary,  and  cannot  form  the 
basis  of  a  theory  of  metre. 


1('The  rhymes  upon  the  accent  or  minor  tone  no  doubt  first  came  into  exist- 
ence."    E.  E.  T.  S.,  80,  p.  xxxix. 


Studies  in  Lajamon's   Verse.  17 

Chapter   III. 

The  Metrical  Structure  of  the  Brut. 

The  testimony  of  the  rimes  of  inflectional  endings  sets  aside  all 
theories  of  L^anion's  verse  except  Schipper's.1  If  La^amon 
avoided  those  rimes  in  the  early  part  of  his  work,  it  was  because 
he  was  not  accustomed  to  stress  the  weak  inflectional  endings,  -e, 
-en,  -es,  -ed,  in  his  ordinary  speech  or  when  he  recited  poetry  com- 
posed in  the  national  metre.  Since  there  is  no  proof  in  the  Brut 
that  these  syllables  were  usually  accented,  and  since,  as  Schipper 
makes  clear,2  the  evidence  of  other  Middle  English  verse  is  equally 
against  accenting  them,  we  shall  hold  the  point  settled. 

The  Brut,  then,  is  not  written  in  four-stressed  verse,  for  such 
readings  as  these  of  Trautmann  and  of  all  four-stressers  are 
impossible  : 

and  sende1  his  sond6     25,341 

burhcostned  mid  wepnen    25,440.3 

It  is  not  written  in  verses  containing  uniformly  two  principal 
and  two  subordinate  stresses.  Whenever  Luick's  types  necessitate 
the  accenting  of  the  inflectional  endings,  those  types  must  be 
rejected ;  thus  : 

A    (x)<x)xx  ^x  forS  to  ban  kinge.     13,812. 

C    (x)xx^x  3if  heo  grrS  s6hten.     13,803. 

D   (x)^x^xx  neowe  trSenden.     13,996.4 

Schipper  summarizes  L^amon's  metre,  or  metres  : 

1.  Pure  alliterating,  strongly  two-stressed  short  lines ; 

2.  The  same  extended,  with  a  sub-stress ; 

3.  Riming  and  rimed  alliterating  lines, 

a.    with  one  sub-stress  and  feminine  endings, 
6.    with  two  sub-stresses  and  masculine  endings. 

1  Above,  p.  4-5.  s  Anglia  II,  p.  159. 

2Wien.  Beit.  2,  pp.  162  ff.  4  Paul's  Grundriss,  II,  p.  999. 


18  Studies  in  Layamon's   Verse. 

For  the  scansion  of  lines  which  do  not  conform  to  the  Old 
English  types,  and  which  form  the  bulk  of  the  Brut,  Schipper 
accepts  and  supplements  the  types  of  Luick,  with  the  modification 
required  by  his  own  theory  of  word-accent,  i.  e.,  the  rejection  of 
sub-stresses  on  weak  inflectional  endings.1    The  result  is  as  follows : 

A*    (x)i(x)xx^x  ne  mihte  we  bilaeue  :  13,875. 

B*    (x)xx^xx-  limbe  fiftene  361*:    13,855. 

C*    (x)xx»x  3if  heo  grflS  sohten.     13,803. 

Ca*    (x)xx^x^x  inne  Saexe-londe.     14,326. 

D*     (x)^xx  neowe  trSenden.     13,996. 

E*     x^(x)xxxx^  Haengest  wes  ]>an  kinge  leof.     14,049. 

"With  extensions  to 

A'*    (x)z(x)xxi(x)x(x)    ]>e  king  sone  up  stod.   14,073. 

C*    (x)xx^xx  nes  ]?er  nan  cristindom  : 

Ca'*  (x)xx^x^xx  J?er  ]?e  king  ]>at  maide  nom.     14,387-8. 

Schipper  gives  several  additional  examples  of  most  of  the  types, 
which  furnish  some  opportunity  for  criticism.  It  is  not  easy,  for 
instance,  to  see  why  kinge  in  the  above  E*  is  subordinated : 
Haengest  wes  J>an  kinge  leof  is  quite  as  logical  and  probable  a 
reading.  Or  why  stod  in  A*  is  given  a  slighter  stress  than  up. 
Alliteration  suggests,  J>e  king  sone  tip  st6d.  Holden  runinge 
(14,070)  is  read  as  a  C*,  and  neowe  trSenden  as  a  D*.  To  make 
a  distinction  between  these  two  lines  is  to  split  hairs.  The  follow- 
ing lines,  classified  by  Schipper  under  A*,  in  Old  English  would 
be  simply  A  ((x)^x(xxx)^x)  :  forS  to  )?an  kinge  (13,812),  ne 
mihte  we  bilaeue :  for  liue  ne  for  daeSe  (13,875-6),  J?at  f6lc  is 
isomned  (13,856),  and  mid  him  brouhte  here  (15,088).  It  would 
not  be  difficult,  but  it  might  be  unfruitful,  to  multiply  illustrations 
like  these.  Enough  has  been  said  to  indicate  the  danger  of  the 
over-enthusiastic  application  of  new  types.  Schipper's  forms  do 
apply  to  La^amon's  verse,  as  figures  will  presently  declare  (Table 
VIII),  but  they  are  not  nearly  so  large  an  element  in  the  Brut  as 
their  author  would  have  us  believe. 

There  is  a  further  reason  for  the  reduction  in  the  number  of 

1  Wien.  Beit.  2,  pp.  67-9. 


Studies  in  La^amon's  Verse. 


19 


these  types.  Three  of  them  must  be  accredited  to  their  original 
formulator  and  reckoned  as  Old  English.  A*,  C*  and  Ca*  and  D* 
are  almost  identical  with  Sievers's  A*l,  ^ix  lx,  C*l,  ixllx  and 
C*2  xux  ^x.*  The  only  diiference  is  in  the.  extra  syllables  marked 
(x)   by  Schipper.     They  are  of  course  not  rare  in  O.  E.1 

The  absence  of  a  prepossession  against  O.  E.  forms,  and  a 
natural  reading  of  certain  classes  of  lines,  together  with  a  careful 
scrutiny  of  the  lines  which  Schipper  admits  to  be  Old  English, 
reveal  these  flaws  in  his  summarizing  classification  : 

1.  Some  two-stressed  lines  of  the  O.  E.  type  are  rimed  : 
A   Heo  fusden  from  stronde 

C   vt  of  Griclonde.     1109-10. 

A    &  alle  bat  bi-houeS  ; 

A   ba  scipen  to  driuen.     945—6. 

2.  Many  rimed  lines  with  masculine  ending  have  only  one 
substress  : 

riden  benne  ilke  waei : 

be  fdr<S  into  Rome  laei.     5676—7. 

enne  bo3e  swrSe  strong : 

and  a  spere  swifte  long.     6471—2. 

Schipper's  types,  then,  are  redundant,  and  his  categories  are 
incomplete.  The  most  serious  incompleteness  in  them  will  now 
appear. 

The  O.  E.   half  or   short  lines  in  the  Brut  are  described  by 


1  For  the  sake  of  a  comprehensive  view,  since  the  Sievers  types  are  so  frequent 
in  Lajamon,  it  will  be  well  to  enumerate  them  here  (see  Paul's  Grundriss,  Vol. 
II,  pp.  889  ff). 


A  ^x 
A2b^x 
B  x^ 
CI  x^ 
Dl  ^  | 
E      -^x 

Expanded : 


£X 

£\ 

XL 

Lx 
Llx 


D2 
El 


A*l 

£ix 

B 

ixi 

C*l 

^xi 

i.X 
xL 
Lx 


L    |    LvX 
Lux    |    L 


A2a 
A2ab 

C2 
D3 
E2 


LX 

s  \ 


D*l     ix      L\x 


A*2     ^x^  |  Lx 

C*2      ±xCx  |  Lx 
D*2     -ix  I  Li>x 


xOx      Lx 


Lxl      L 


D4    ^  |  ^xi 


C*3      ixi  |  Cx 
D*3 


:x      ^x^ 


20  Studies  in  La^amon's  Verse. 

Schipper  as  containing  two  principal  stresses  (and  presumably  no 
substresses).  The  recapitulation  of  the  Sievers  types  shows  how 
incomplete  such  a  classification  is,  in  disregarding  many  of  the 
substresses  recognized  in  O.  E.  It  also  leaves  entirely  out  of 
account  the  whole  hypermetrical  class  (Schwettvers).  These  forms 
are  so  important  that  it  will  be  well  to  state  them  in  full.  The 
following  formulas  are  those  recognized  by  Luick,  Sievers  and 
Schipper : ' 

/  / 

AA     sx  .  .  .  cx±x  weaxen  wltegbrogan.     Gen.  45. 

A2A  /x^x^x  wserfaest  willan  mines.     Gen.  2168. 

/    v  /  i 

A* A  /.xx^x.^x  arleas  of  earde  Jjinum.     Gen.  1019. 

AB     £.x  .  .  .  £.x.£  waesceth  his  warig  hrsegl.     Gn.  Ex.  99. 
AC     lx  .  .  .  llx  wlftige  to  w6ruldnytte.     Gen.  1016. 
AD    lx  .  .  .  ^ix  &&alde  6yrnwiggende.     Jud.  17. 

AE     /x.  .  .  ^xx.i  sweord  and  swatigne  helm.     Jud.  338. 

/         / 
BA     x.lx  .  .  .  lx.lx  auyrged  to  widan  aldre.     Gen.  1015. 

BB     xlx  .  .  lx.l  oferciimen  bi]>  he  aer  he  acwele.  Gn.  Ex.  114. 

/  / 

BC     x  .  .  lx  .  .  .  llx  and  nahte  ealdfeondum.    Dan.  454. 

/  _  / 

BD    x.lx  .  .  llxx  a^edon  hie  "Seer  fimwerigne.    Kr.  63. 

CA    xclx.lx  geseo'S  sorga  mieste.     Crist,  1209. 

CC     x  .  .  .  £.£.ox  ne  se  bryne  beotmaecgum.    Dan.  265. 
CD    xx^^ix  )>&  he  J?yder  folc  samnode.    Dan.  228. 

CE    xi^ixi  forj?6n  waerlogona  sint.    Gen.  2409. 

i  i 

BE    xl  .  .  .  l\x.l  ne  }?earf  he  J?y  edleane  gefeon.    Gen.  1523. 

(and  a  few  others  occurring  very  rarely.) 

Heretofore  no  one  has  applied  these  hypermetrical  types  to  the 

Brut.     But  an  examination  of  La^amon  yields  such  examples  as 

these : 

AA     twd  and  feowerti  wmtre.     10,232. 

1  P.  u.  B.  Beit.  XII,  p.  455 ;  XIII,  p.  389 ;  XV,  pp.  360-441 ;  Sievers's  Alt- 
germ.  Met.  88-96 ;  Wien.  Beit.,  pp.  50-52. 


Studies  in  La^amon's  Verse.  21 

A2A  (probably)  G6dlac  king  on  ueste.     4,526. 

AB  alle  )>at  3irnden  his  grrb\     10,305. 

AC  J>e  gauel  of  Bruttlonde.     10,503. 

AD  swiken  )?ene  king  Basian.     10,615. 

AE  &  nom  him  oSerne  cure.     11,255. 

BA  ]>a  ]?at  child  was  of  ]?rittene  3ere.     11,078. 

BB  bitahte  ]?an  maidene  an  hond.     10,915. 

BC  ]?at  dursten  him  cZerf  makien.     10,943. 

BD  J?at  ictimen  was  per  Gillomar.      18,079. 

CA  &  $ef  ^iues  swi«e  gode.     10,299. 

CC  moni  lond  timbe-rowen.      114. 

CD  Jns  w6rd  com  to  Oarrais.     10,634. 

BE  &  muchele  monscipe  biwon.     345. 

These  types  satisfy  10  %  of  L^arnon's  lines,  at  a  conservative 
estimate,  and  accepting  the  new  Schipper  types  whenever  they  can 
be  applied  with  a  fair  degree  of  ease. 

The  following  tabulation  makes  a  conservative  count  of  the 
Schwellvers.  For  the  sake  of  comparison,  the  numbers  of  the 
Sievers  O.  E.  and  Schipper  types  are  also  given.  The  B  and  B* 
types  are  separated  from  the  others  in  order  that  Schipper' s  sum- 
maries, with  their  distinction  between  masculine  and  feminine 
lines,  may  be  accurately  tested. 

TABLE  VIII. 
The  Proportion  of  the  Metrical  Types. 


Sievers. 

Schipper.    Schwell- 

( > VERS. 

Simple. 

Expanded. 

Lines 

B 

Rest 

B* 

Best 

B* 

Best 

1-  1,000 

58 

321 

83 

396 

25 

24            95 

10,230-11,230 
18,000-19,000 
19,000-20,000 
31,000-32,000 

44 
30 
34 
26 

351 
382 
389 
324 

77 
59 
68 
68 

244 
167 
176 
217 

40 
48 
39 
32 

112          113 
165            99 
157            99 
205            90 

But  there  is  reason  for  believing  that  this  estimate  of  the  pro- 
portion of  the  Schwellvers  is  too  low.     These  types  may  be  sub- 


22  Studies  in  Laqamon's   Verse. 

stituted  for  the  Schipper  types  in  many  cases  with  great  ease,  and 
often  in  the  same  way  for  the  expanded  Sievers  types.  Such  a 
substitution  is  eminently  reasonable.  It  helps  to  do  away  with 
the  subtleties  of  sub-stresses,  and  thus  maintains  the  prevailing 
simplicity  of  the  verse ; 1  and  it  emphasizes  the  strength  of  the 
Old  English  element.  The  reconsideration  of  the  Schwellvers 
gives  this  result : 


TABLE  IX. 

The  Proportion 

of  the  Schwellvers. 

Links. 

Probably. 

Possibly. 

1-  1,000 

325 

380 

10,230-11,230 

378 

444 

18,000-19,000 

430 

493 

19,000-20,000 

385 

452 

31,000-32,000 

450 

39.3  1 

500 

1,968  = 

2,269  = 

There  is  further  support  for  the  Schwellvers  scansion  in  the 
position  of  alliterating  letters.  It  cannot  be  proved,  of  course, 
that  an  alliterating  syllable  in  the  Brut  was  a  strongly  stressed 
syllable.  But  in  view  of  the  large  share  that  alliteration  claims 
in  this  poem — a  share  so  large,  as  we  have  seen,  that  students  have 
been  misled  into  believing  it  more  potent  than  the  rime — and  in  view 
of  the  prevailingly  Old  English  character  of  the  verse,  it  is 
extremely  probable  that  La^amon  used  his  alliteration  to  mark  the 
most  important  words,  instead  of  those  with  merely  a  substress. 
In  the  light  of  this  opinion,  the  scansion  of  the  following  lines 
is  clear : 

Nv  ser8  mid  Z6ft  songe  : 

be  wes  on  feoden  preost. 

al  swa  be  66c  spekeS  : 

be  h6  to  &isne  in6m.     68-71. 

ful  well  pan  like  stade  : 

1  It  i6  always  possible  to  find  diversities  of  metre  in  long  poems.  A.  J.  Ellis 
(Trans.  Phil.  Soc.,  1875-6,  p.  445)  found  45  signs  necessary  for  his  description  of 
modern  blank  verse.  Schipper  (Wien.  Beit.  2,  pp.  48-49)  says  that  the  Schwell- 
verse  are  not  always  to  be  distinguished  with  certainty  from  ordinary  verses  with 
long  Auftakl.     Decision  depends  on  general  verse-rhythm. 


Studies  in  La^amon's  Verse.  23 

bar  R6me  nou  s£6nde3.     124-5. 

lie  rnakede  emie  .sfronge  castel : 

mid  sMrke  ston  walle.     188-9. 

Cnihtes  ^linnen  riden  : 

g&eres  ^uunen  gliden.     19,550-1. 

ba  sae  heoni  saetten  a  that  strond.     19,916. 

be  /6lc  fit  of  16nde : 

/lah  on  delche  deude.     31,845-6.* 


TABLE  X. 

Schwellvers  Established  by  Alliteration. 

Lines.  Cases. 

1-  1,000  73 

10,230-11,230  116 

18,000-19,000  66 

19,000-20,000  83 

31,000-32,000  141 

479 

It  is  obvious  that,  in  order  to  furnish  proof  of  a  scansion  of 
three  strong  stresses,  there  must  be  either  three  alliterating  letters 
in  a  line,  or  two  such  letters  and  an  unmistakably  strong  non-allit- 
erating syllable,  or  one  alliterating  letter  and  two  other  strong 
syllables.  A  glance  back  at  Table  I  will  recall  how  few,  compara- 
tively, are  the  cases  of  even  double  alliteration,  and  will  therefore 
emphasize  the  significance  of  the  total  stated  above. 

All  the  probabilities,  then,  point  toward  the  Schwellvers  as  an 
important  element  in  the  metre  of  the  Brut. 

In  the  use  of  the  hypermetrical  lines  the  Brut  is  not  unique, 
but  has  its  place  among  other  M.  E.  poems,  in  a  definite  succession 
from  O.  E.  times.  Luick  classes  it  metrically  with  the  Juliana, 
Marharete,  Caterina,  and  Hali  Meidenhad.  He  does  not  detect 
the  presence  of  the  Schivettverse  in  these  works,  but  it  is  in  this 

1  The  distinction  in  the  placing  of  the  letters  in  the  1st  and  2nd  half-lines, 
observed  in  O.  E.  verse,  is  not  found  in  La;amon.  His  Schwellverse  show  the 
same  licenses  as  the  rest  of  his  lines  in  this  respect. 


24  Studies  in  La^amon's  Verse. 

element  that  they  furnish  the  most  significant  groimd  of  compari- 
son with  the  Brut.  The  last  poetic  passage  in  the  A.  S.  Chronicle 
has  its  place  in  the  series,  and  the  Proverbs  of  Alfred  also.1 

TABLE  XLS 
The  Metricax  Types  en  M.  E.  Poems. 

Brat. 


Alfred's 
Death. 

Marhar- 
ete. 

Juli- 
ana. 

Prov. 
Alfred. 

Cater- 
in  a. 

Hali 

Meid. 

0.  E.  types 

16 

242 

238 

176 

182 

186 

Expanded fl 

12 

156 

141 

178 

161 

159 

Schwellverse 

6  = 

102  = 

121  = 

146  = 

152  = 

155 

39.3  1  to 
17.6  i     20.4  *     24.2  i      29.2  i      30.4  i      31  *      45.4 


The  Schwellverse  in  these  poems  still  tend  to  occur  in  groups, 
especially  in  the  Brut,  though  they  are  often  isolated.  In  none 
have  they  so  artistic  a  function  as  Dr.  Foster  has  shown  that  they 
exercise  in  the  Judith.4  But  they  spring  more  out  of  a  syntactical 
necessity,  in  consequence  of  the  more  expanded  forms  of  expres- 
sion that  the  language  was  developing.  In  La^amon,  as  we  shall 
see,  there  was  an  additional  reason  for  using  extended  forms. 

The  types  of  Schipper,  while  they  have  not  been  entirely  set 
aside,  have  been  seen  to  hold  a  much  less  prominent  place  than  he 
has  claimed  for  them ;  and  the  presence  of  the  Schwellverse  has 
been  established.     The  new  classification  is  as  follows  : 

1.  Two-stressed  short  lines  of  O.  E.  type,  either  merely  alliter- 

ated, or  rimed,  or  rimed  with  alliteration  ; 

2.  The  same  extended, 

a.    by  one  sub-stress  as  in  O.  E.  expanded  lines,  and  fre- 
quently by  additional  unstressed  syllables  also; 
6.    by  two  sub-stresses  (Schipper's  A'*,  B*,  C'*,  E*)  ; 

1  The  numbers  of  Schwellverse,  in  order  of  proportion,  in  O.  E.  pooms  in  which 
they  are  of  most  frequent  occurrence,  are  as  follows  :  Gn.  Ex.  68  ;  Eood  34,  about 
21.52  f  ;  Judith,  65.5,  about  18.5  *  ;  Daniel  49  ;  Christ  37  ;  Genesis  31.5  ;  Guth- 
lac  G.  29  ( see  Sievers,  P.  u.  B.  XII,  p.  454 ;  Foster,  Judith,  p.  35,  foot-notes) . 

'  In  all  the  poems  except  the  first,  which  has  only  34  lines,  500  lines  were  counted. 

8  Expanded  Sievers  and  Schipper  types.  As  in  the  case  of  Lajamon,  the  major- 
ity of  these  might  be  read  as  Schwellverse. 

4  Judith,     ten  Brink's  Quellen  und  Forschungen  LXXI. 


Studies  in  Layamon's  Verse.  25 

3.  Lines  of  the  O.  E.  Schwettvers  type ; 

4.  Lines  of  four  stresses  not  included  in  the  foregoing. 


Chapter  IV. 
The  Influence  of  Wace. 


Up  to  this  point,  the  influence  of  Wace  has  been  mentioned  in 
a  general  way  as  affecting  La^amon's  word-accent  and  his  skill  in 
rime.  The  first  of  these  modes  of  operation  must  remain  merely 
a  matter  of  probability.  The  second  may  be  demonstrated  by  a 
line  for  line  comparison  with  the  French  original,  as  well  as  by  the 
numerical  increase  in  rimes  already  discussed. 

La^amon  sometimes  uses  the  very  rimes  of  the  French.  This 
is  notably  the  case  when  he  simply  transcribes  a  list  of  proper 
names  : 

Brutus  Uaert  Escut.     Margadud  : 

Sisiluius.     Regin.     Bladud. 

Moruit.     Lagon.     Ebedloan : 

Ricar.     Spaden.     Gaul.     Pardan. 

JEldad.     Gangu.     Xerin.     Luor : 

Rue  Assarac.     Buel.     Hector.     2,693-8. 

Cf.  Wace,  1,581-6.  See  also  La3amon,  2,703-12,  and  Wace, 
1,589-8 ;  La^amon,  5,259-64,  and  Wace,  2,913-18  ;  La3amon, 
24,331-2,  24,335-6,  24,343-6,  24,355-8,  and  Wace,  10,531-6, 
10,549-52  ;  La^amon,  24,399-24,404,  and  Wace,  10,587-90,  etc. 

There  are  instances  of  other  kinds  of  similar  rimes  : 

Lauine  hehte  his  leuemon  : 

J?ene  castel  he  clepede  Lauinion.     190-1. 

De  La  vine  posa  le  nom 

Si  l'apela  Lavinion.     Wace  71-2. 

heo  beo^  to  gadere  icumene.     456. 

Se  sont  jost^  communement.     Wace  232. 

In  the  nature  of  things  these  instances  cannot  occur  often, 


26  Studies  in  La^amon's  Verse. 

La^amon  too  carefully  refrains  from  the  use  of  French  words.  In 
the  5,000  lines  examined,  only  eight  cases  have  been  observed,  in 
addition  to  proper  names.  But  the  fact  that  they  are  to  be  found 
at  all  shows  clearly  enough  how  La^amon  learned  riming. 

Similarities  of  sound  in  other  positions  than  the  ends  of  lines, 
produced  by  the  repetitions  of  words  or  syllables,  are  found  in 
La^amon  and  in  Wace.  Instances  from  Le  Roman  de  Brut  have 
been  noted  and  classified  by  Keller.1  He  finds  many  examples  of 
the  recurrence  of  the  same  subject,  verb,  object,  and  phrases  in  the 
same  sentence ;  of  repetitions  of  almost  entire  sentences ;  of  the 
same  word  in  different  constructions,  and  of  the  same  root-sylla- 
ble in  different  words.  These  repetitions  may  occur  in  the  same 
place  in  successive  lines,  or  they  may  be  arranged  in  chiastic  form. 
La^amon's  translation  frequently  reflects  these  peculiarities.  His 
imitations  as  a  rule  pay  little  regard  to  the  office  in  the  sentence 
held  by  the  repeated  word  in  the  original,  therefore  minute  classi- 
fications of  these  phenomena  are  not  desirable.  He  is  content  with 
the  presence  of  a  repeated  sound  in  a  translated  passage,  and  often, 
when  the  recurring  sound  is  inconvenient  to  manage  in  his  corres- 
ponding sentence,  he  uses  the  device  some  lines  farther  on. 

In  the  instances  most  nearly  approaching  the  French,  the  repe- 
tition of  the  verb  is  of  frequent  occurrence. 

Bi-leaf  ]?e  treuwe  }>e  bi-lef  ]>ene  a3~S.     4,340. 

Romp  l'aliance,  romp  le  foi.     W.  2407. 

In  his  translation  of  the  following,  La^amon  outdoes  Wace  (see 
1.  2,001-17)  for  he  repeats  bi  heold  he  eight  times,  thrice  in  con- 
secutive lines  : 

Brutus  esgarda  les  montaignes, 

Vit  les  values,  vit  les  plaignes, 

Les  marines  et  les  boscages 

Et  les  6ves  et  les  rivages  ; 

Vit  les  cans  et  les  praaries, 

Vit  les  teres  bien  gaagnies, 

Et  la  terre  bien  avoier 

Et  le  pueple  monteplier.         W.  1,245-52. 

1  Maistre  Wace,  eine  stylistische  Untersuchung.     1886. 


Studies  in  Lajcimon's  Verse.  27 

In  the  following,   La^amon's  restraint  in  the  use  of  verbs  is 
balanced  by  the  parallel  structure  of  the  last  two  lines  : 

Nu  fusen  we  horn  to  : 
&  stsercliche  heom  leggen  on. 
&  wrseken  wunderliche : 
»  ure  cun  &  ure  riche. 

&  wreken  }>ene  muchele  scome  : 

J;at  heo  us  iscend  habbeoS. 

J>at  heo  ouer  vSen  : 

comen  to  Derte-muSen. 

&  alle  heo  beo$  for-sworene  : 

&  alle  heo  beo$  for-lorene.  21,177-86. 

Vengies  vos  amis,  vos  parens  ; 
Vengies  les  grans  destruimens, 
Vengies  les  pertes,  les  travax 


Qu'il  nos  ont  fait  par  tans  assax 


Jo  vengerai  les  felonies, 

Jo  vengerai  les  foi  menties ; 

Jo  vengerai  nies  ancissors 

Et  les  pertes  et  les  dolors, 

Et  vengerai  la  revenue 

Que  il  ont  fait  a  Destremue.         W.  9,558-67. 

The  common  Old  French  maint  La^amon  renders  in : 

moni  heaued  moni  hond  : 

fallen  to  foten. 

monie  ]^ar  fuhten  : 

monie  flaeni  makeden. 

monie  ]?ar  feollen  :  574—8. 

Maint  home  ester,  et  maint  abattre, 

Et  maint  fair  et  maint  combatre  : 

Maint  colp  i  recoivent  et  rendent, 

Li  Troyen  parmi  les  fendent, 

Maint  en  ont  mort  et  abatu, 

Maint  en  ont  pris  et  retenu ; 

Retenus  fut  Antigonus.         W.  297-303. 


28  Studies  in  La^amon's  Verse. 

In  the  following  instance  the  syntax  of  the  repeated  word  is  pre- 
served : 

grift  he  wolde  lumen  : 

nnriht  he  wolde  scunien. 

grift  he  wolde  habben  : 

grift  he  wolde  holden.  15,128-31. 

Pais  desiroient,  pais  voloient, 

Pais  amoient  et  pais  querroient.  W.  7,393-4. 

And  in  this  the  change  is  simply  from  adjective  to  adverb  : 

J?at  fseht  wes  swufte  strong  : 

&  swufte  stser  &  swufte  longe.  4,170-1. 

Maint  colp  i  ot  pris  et  don6 

Et  maint  home  mort  et  navr6, 

Maint  escru  frait  et  depecie\         W.  2,283-5. 

The  closest  parallelisms  are  found  in  the  case  of  entire  lines  in 
which,  though  no  particular  construction  is  necessarily  copied,  the 
effect  of  the  whole  is  that  of  similarity : 

heo  hefden  wind  heo  hefden  water : 

J>e  heom  wel  ferede. 

Jmtti  dawes  &  ]?ritti  niht : 

heo  ferden  efer  forft  riht,  1,273-6. 

Taut  ont  siglS  tant  ont  nagie- : 

Tant  ont  eu  ore  et  vent, 

Que  en  trois  jors  rooidement 

De  si  qu'as  pors  d'Efrise  vinrent.        W.  704-7. 

Weore  hit  rih  weore  hit  woh  :         6,373. 

U  fust  a  tort,  u  fust  a  droit.         W.  3,430. 

A  noticeable  repetition  of  some  sort  is  likely  to  be  found  in 
La^amon  anywhere  in  sight  of  such  a  device  in  Wace ;  as : 

muchcl  dom,  much  el  dune  : 

rnuchel  folkes  dream.  1,009-10. 


Studies  in  La^amon's  Verse.  29 

immediately  preceding  his  translation  of 

Bien  dit,  bien  dit,  ce  dient  tuit.  W.  560. 

These  anaphoristic  repetitions  may  not  perhaps  properly  be 
called  rime,  but  they  are  evidence  that  L^anion's  ear  delighted  in 
similarities  of  sound,  and  that  he  was  quick  to  use  opportunities  to 
secure  them. 

True  internal  rimes  are  made  by  Wace,  and  imitated  by  La^a- 
mon  : 

Armes  quisrent  et  robes  prisrent, 

Maisons  arsent,  homes  ocistrent ;  W.  9,474-5. 

Tant  fist,  taut  dist  et  porcaca, 

Et  tant  pramist  et  tant  dona, 

Et  tant  requist,  et  tant  proia, 

Al  roi  Artur  se  concorda  :         W.  10,134-7. 

&  Cestesburi  castel : 

an  Waladunes  dune.  2,822-3. 

to  munien  his  ikunde.  2,033. 

Jwlede  ich  on  folde.         2,287. 

&  ]>er  he  wonede  in  ]?on  londe.  2,526. 

to  somne  heo  comen  sone.  19,138. 

Very  common  in  L^amon  are  what  Regel l  calls  Formeln  des 
Binnenreims,  and  Guest2  Sectional  Rime ;  such  as  widen  and  siden, 
grith  and  frith,  &c. 

Various  forms  of  chiastic  rime  are  frequent  in  Wace,  and  these, 
too,  are  noted  by  the  English  poet : 

Mult  me  desdaigne,  en  mervillant, 

Et  me  mervel,  en  desdegnant.        W.  10,923-4. 

Ne  nul  fors  un,  n'en  sai  nomer ; 

L'un  sai  nomer,  ce  vous  puis  dire.       "W.  1,068-9. 

^.174.  2p.  122. 


30  Studies  in  La^amon's   Verse. 

Goruois  un  quens  Cornwalois 

Mult  prous  et  saiges  et  cortois.      W.  8,689-90. 

Cors  contre  cours  bataille  enprist ; 
Chevalier  ert  vaillans  et  fors.  W.  60-1. 

&  swerie  rne  seftes : 

]>e  se^  heom  seel  iwurSen.  5,448-9. 

J>a  Breunes  hauede  ihirde  : 

his  hirde-manne  lare.  4,408-9. 

&  ssei'S  J>at  he  awundred  is  : 
wunder  ane  swrSe.     24,775-6. 

J>a  clupede  J>e  king  : 
kenliche  lude.         21,295-6. 

he  ferde  ut  of  Cantuarie  burie  : 
mid  balden  his  ferden.  7,438-9. 

Continuous  rime,  extending  sometimes  to  ten  lines  or  more,  is 
too  common  in  Wace  and  Old  French  poetry  in  general  to  need 
exemplification.  Shorter  series  of  assonantal  end-words  are  to  be 
met  in  the  Brut  also,  and  too  often  to  seem  quite  accidental  : 

&  }if  Jm  Jus  nult  don  : 

Jm  scalt  wurse  underfon. 

for  Oswy  is  a  swulc  mon  : 

J>ine  scome  he  wulle  don.  31,583-6. 

Oswi  hafde  ernes  sunen  : 

J>e  weoren  swrSe  prute  gumen. 

and  ma  of  his  cunne : 

J>a  weoren  mod-fulle.  31,461—4. 

agaen  he  gon  wende : 

in  to  ]?isse  londe. 

and  in  ]>an  norS  ende  : 

sette  J>ene  king  Penda. 

to  fleomeu  Oswalde : 

ut  of  ]>issen  londe.         31,347-52. 


Studies  in  Lajamon's  Verse.  31 

It  is  true  that  many  of  the  peculiarities  of  La^amon's  rimes 
are  not  unknown  in  Old  English  verse.  The  Formeln  des  Bin- 
nenreims  are  common  there.  Initial  rimes,  inverted  rimes,  and 
the  riming  of  a  word  at  the  beginning  of  one  half-line  and  the 
end  of  the  next,  are  all  noted  by  Kluge.1  It  is  very  possible  that 
La^amon  derived  these  elements  of  his  technique  from  the  litera- 
ture of  his  own  country.  But  since  these  peculiarities  are  of  such 
frequent  occurrence  in  Wace,  and  are  in  many  cases  so  directly 
imitated  by  La^amon,  the  conclusion  seems  inevitable  that  here  at 
least  he  was  indebted  to  the  French.  "  Er  lernte  gar  von  Wace 
manche  technische  Neuerung,  uberbot  ihn  sogar  in  anaphorischen 
Wiederholungen."  2 

What  effect  had  these  imitations  upon  La^amon's  metre  ?  Can 
an  ear  so  sensitive  as  his  have  failed  to  be  impressed  by  the  metri- 
cal quality  of  the  verse  he  was  so  constantly  reading?  All  the 
forms  of  his  lines  have  not  been  accounted  for  by  referring  them 
to  O.  E.  progenitors.  The  line  of  four  beats  sometimes  cannot  be 
made  to  conform  to  an  O.  E.  type.  Schipper's  modifications  will 
not  always  satisfy  it  either  : 

Ten  ^er  heo  wes  mid  Locrine  : 
ofte  heo  haefde  seorwe  &  pine, 
fiftene  }er  and  ni^en  d&waes  : 

2514-16. 

ibrout  ich  habbe  ]?es  kinges  brother.  725. 

$eouen  niht  &  senne  daei  : 

)>e  king  swv&e  seoc  lai.  11,012-3. 

d\  Jjat  J?et  child  mid  seyen  isseh :  11,062. 

and  J?er  wes  Elene  ]>e  halie  quene  :  11,148. 

fe  king  lette  wtirchen  tw6ien  imaken  :  18,206. 

Nti  wes  ArSur  god  king  :  19,960. 

d\  to-gadere  M. wines  lond.  31,295. 

2p.  422. 

a  Ten  Brink.    Paul's  Grundriss,  Vol.  II,  p.  622. 


32  Studies  in  La^amon's  Verse. 

Penda  his  *w6ord  Ht  a-droh  :         31,425. 

Single  stresses  in  some  of  these  lines  might  be  subordinated, 
though  usually  the  alliteration  warns  against  such  a  change ;  and 
even  if  it  were  made  in  spite  of  the  alliteration,  the  result  would 
not  exemplify  anybody's  types.  Whether  masculine  or  feminine, 
the  above  verses  are  most  easily  scanned  as  simple  four-stressed 
lines,  irregular,  to  be  sure,  both  in  the  number  of  their  syllables 
and  in  the  position  of  their  beats,  but  in  both  these  respects  quite 
in  accordance  with  the  standards  of  Old  English  verse. 

They  present,  however,  Old  English  standards  applied  to  a  new 
metrical  ideal — French  octosyllabics.  If  proof  of  this  be  needed, 
it  may  be  obtained  by  noting  the  metre  of  La^amon's  line  for  line 
translations  from  Wace.  Some  of  these  have  already  been  quoted 
(pp.  25,  28).  A  reperusal  of  them  discloses  the  fact  that  the 
majority  of  the  English  lines  are  four-stressed,  whether  or  not  they 
conform  to  recognized  types.  The  list  of  names  transcribed  directly 
from  Le  Roman  de  Brut  (see  p.  25)  indicates  that  La^amon  did  not 
shun  the  metre  of  his  original. 

The  exact  number  of  line  for  line  translations  in  5,000  lines, 
and  the  number  of  expanded  lines  of  all  types  among  these,  are 
noted  in  the  following  table  : 

TABLE  XI. 
Line  for  Line  Translations. 

Lines.  Total  Transl.  Expanded. 

1-  1,000  11  6 

1,000-  2,000  99  76 

10,230-11,230  16  13 

18,000-19,000  17  14 

19,000-20,000  11  9 

31,000-32,000  9  9 

The  smallness  of  these  numbers  is  not  surprising,  when  it  is 
remembered  that  L^amon's  constant  practice  was  to  draw  out  and 
augment  Wacc's  matter  in  every  way,  by  interpolations  from  other 
sources,  and  by  splitting  up  and  expanding  the  octosyllabic  lines. 
The  number  of  considerable  interpolations,  according  to  Madden, 
in  the  60,000  lines,  is  recorded  in  the  following  table : 


Studies  in  La^amon's   Verse.  33 


TABLE 

XIL 

Intekpolations. 

LINES. 

1-  1,000 

45  ( excl.  introduction ). 

1,000-  2,000 

39 

10,230-11,230 

281 

18,000-19,000 

356 

19,000-20,000 

691 

31,000-32,000 

514 

Total,  1,926 

This  constantly  increasing  amount  of  new  matter  as  constantly 
contracts  the  field  for  parallelism  in  translation.  The  approach  to 
the  forms  of  Wace,  however,  is  discernible  in  some  extended  pas- 
sages that  only  approach  Wace's  syntax.  These  are  naturally  in 
the  first  part  of  the  poem.  Pp.  54-5,  84,  114,  115,  116-7  and 
123,  all  in  Vol.  I.,  contain  examples  of  these  long  lines. 

La^amon's  more  usual  practice  is  to  follow  the  French  closely 
for  a  few  lines,  and  then  to  drop  into  his  shorter,  more  familiar 
verse,  probably  because  he  finds  the  long  line  difficult  to  maintain. 
The  following  passage,  with  its  original,  illustrates  this : 


Li  rois  a  le  brief  escot6 ; 

Grant  merveille  li  a  samble 

Que  li  Troyen  se  revelent 

Et  que  de  francise  l'apelent. 

Fol  hardiment,  ce  dit,  ont  pris  ; 

Et  en  fole  oevre  se  sont  mis. 

Ses  dus,  ses  princes,  ses  barons 

Et  tos  ses  homes  a  somons. 

Gent  a  ceval,  et  gent  a  pie 

Vers  eels  de  Troye  a  cevalcie.  W.  253-62. 

J>e  king  nom  ]?at  writ  on  bond  : 
&  he  hit  wro"Sliche  bi-heold. 
seolcuS  him  Jnihte  : 
swulcere  speche. 
Jm  he  alles  spac ; 


34  Studies  in  La^amon's  Verse. 

mid  Jn'jete  he  spilede. 

To  wro]>er  heore  hele  : 

habbeft  heo  such  were  idon. 

Mine  Jn'alles  i  mire  }>eode  : 

me  suluen  ]n'etia$. 

wide  he  sende  ^eoud  J?at  loud  : 

for  he  was  leoden  king. 

]>at  come  to  hirede  : 

riche  men  &  we^len. 

al  ]>at  wapmon-cun  : 

)>a  mihte  beren  wapen. 

vppen  lif  &  uppen  leomen  : 

al  ]>es  londes  folc. 

An  horsen  &  an  foten  : 

fortS  heo  ifusten.  484-503. 

To  appreciate  the  extent  of  La^amon's  imitation  of  the  French 
verse,  a  clear  idea  of  the  character  of  that  verse  is  essential. 
Schipper l  holds  that,  like  the  mediaeval  Latin  verse  from  which  it 
was  developed,  it  is  accentual.  "In  der  mittelalterlich-lateinischen 
Poesie,  sowie  audi  in  der  romanischen,  ist  .  .  .  .  eine  regelmassige 
Aufeinanderfolge  von  starker  und  schwacher  betonten  Silben  oder 
von  Hebungen  und  Senkungen  Gesetz,  die  beide  vou  gleichen 
Wert  fur  den  rhythmus  sind."  Quoting  two  couplets  of  Wace 
as  illustration,  he  concludes  :  "  Wir  haben  hier  ein  Versmass  von 
im  Ganzen  jambischen  rhythmus  vor  uns."  Wace's  editor  calls 
the  verse  syllabic  rather  than  accentual ;  and  most  of  the  proso- 
dists  agree  that,  though  closely  related  to  the  accented  iambic 
dimeter,  by  Wace's  time  the  syllabic  character  of  French  verse 
was  established,  and  that  the  only  necessary  stresses  were  those 
on  the  last  syllable  and  at  the  caesura  after  the  fourth  syllable. 
But  there  are  some  differences  of  opinion  as  to  the  last  point. 

Tobler's  views  on  the  subject  are  as  follows  : 

"Mais  la  versification  francais  n'a  jamais  connu  un  principe 
semblable  au  principe  fundamental  de  cette  espece  de  vers  latins 
qui  exigeat  que  des  syllabes  tonique  alternassent  invariablement 
avec  des  syllabes  atones." 

1Wiea.  Beit.  2,  p.  79. 


2 


Studies  in  La$amon's   Verse.  35 

"  Naturellenient,  vu  son  peu  delongeur,  ce  vers  [le  vers  octo- 
syllabique]  n'a  pas  de  cesure  ;  on  bien  il  faudrait,  pour  lni  en 
trouver,  reunir  des  vers  de  quatre  syllables  qui  se  suivent,  rimant 
deux  a  deux,  de  maniere  a  faire  des  vers  de  huit  syllabes  avec  rime 
interieure  :  ....  il  est  fort  douteux  que  meme  pour  la  periode  la 
plus  ancienne,  la  cesure  dans  le  vers  de  huit  syllabes  ait  6t6  autre 
chose  que  l'effet  du  hasard,  ou  plutot  autre  chose  qu'un  produit 
direct  de  la  nature  du  vers  et  du  langage."  l 

But  Gaston  Paris  affirms 2  "  1' existence  d'une  ensure,  a  l'epoque 
primitive,  dans  les  vers  de  huit  syllabes  ....  elle  ne  peut,  a  mon 
avis,  s'expliquer  par  le  simple  rhythme  de  la  langue  elle-meme, 
comme  M.  Tobler  est  porte  a  le  croire,  car  ce  rhythme  n'a  pas 
changS  depuis  le  xne  siecle,  et  cepeudant  deja  dans  AVace  on  ne 
trouve  plus  trace  de  l'accentuation  reguliere  de  la  quatri^me  syllabe 
du  vers  octosyllabique.  Cette  accentuation  reguliere  se  retrouve 
dans  les  vers  latins  rythmique  qui  correspondent  a  nos  octosylla- 
biques  et  n'est  qu'un  reste  d'une  periode  plus  ancienne,  ou  l'alter- 
nance  des  syllabes  atones  et  toniques  a  du  6tre  beaucoup  plus 
constante." 

"Wace's  line,  then,  had  not  more  than  two  stresses,  and  was 
mainly  syllabic. 

There  is  no  evidence  that  La^amon  perceived  the  syllabic  char- 
acter of  Wace's  verse.  Certainly  he  did  not  imitate  it,  for  his 
own  verse  does  not  improve  in  syllabic  regularity.  The  largest 
number  of  couplets  in  which  both  members  contain  the  same,  or 
nearly  the  same,  number  of  syllables,  is  in  the  first  1,000  lines, 
where  there  are  412  such  couplets;  while  in  the  11th  thousand 
there  are  312,  in  the  19th  312,  in  the  20th  341,  and  in  the  32nd 
340. 

However  the  line  may  have  sounded  to  French  ears,  it  was  its 
iambic  quality,  or  rather  simply  its  capacity  for  receiving  more 
stresses  than  the  O.  E.  line  he  knew,  which  struck  La^amon's 
attention  and  aroused  his  instinct  or  his  desire  to  imitate  it  spas- 
modically. Of  metric  regularity  in  any  other  than  the  O.  E.  sense 
he  had  no  conception ;  therefore,  as  we  have  seen,  many  of  the  lines 
traceable  to  T^ace  may  be  designated  by  a  modified  form  of  an 
O.  E.  type.     It  is  significant  that  the  scribe  or  scribes  who  copied 

1  pp.  123,  125.  *  Preface,  p.  xi. 


36  Studies  in  Layamon's  Verse. 

his  work  avoided  the  long  lines,  perhaps  because  they  were 
unfamiliar  with  the  French.  The  younger  MS.,  Cott.  Otho,  C. 
XII.,  shortens  17.5  fo  of  the  lines,  while  it  lengthens  only  6  f0, 
and  one  half  of  these  are  produced  by  combining  two  or  more 
lines,  in  accordance  with  a  general  process  of  shortening  the  work. 
It  may  be  that  scribes  of  the  older  MS.  did  the  same  thing,  and 
that  the  original  contained  more  long  lines  than  survive  for  our 
counting. 

It  is  clear,  then,  that  the  influence  of  Wace  on  La^amon  is 
noticeable,  and  that  La^amon  was  often  conscious  of  it.  Its  effect 
was  the  development  of  rime  and  consequently  the  decrease  of 
alliteration,  and  the  occasional  lengthening  of  the  Old  English  line 
to  one  of  four  stresses.  It  is  also  clear  that  to  imitate  the  French 
verse  constantly  and  consistently  was  not  in  the  power,  or  accord- 
ing to  the  desire,  of  the  English  poet.  His  sense  of  the  Old 
English  verse  was  on  the  whole  the  stronger. 

Conclusion. 

The  verse  of  La3amon  presents  an  interesting  spectacle  of  the 
unfused  mixture  of  the  old  and  the  new,  of  the  activity  of  instinct 
and  purpose,  habit  and  conscious  effort.  The  old  verse  forms  and 
the  old  alliterative  formulas  are  stamped  upon  his  expression,  but 
they  take  shape  in  his  writing  with  no  strict  sense  of  the  laws  of 
their  ancient  usage.  As  he  ponders  over  Wace  he  learns  what 
rime  is ;  and  his  pleasure  and  skill  in  it  grow  as  his  work  grows. 
He  learns,  too,  a  new  form  of  verse,  but  he  uses  it  sparingly,  and 
with  increasing  distrust.  Though  his  poem  reflects  his  acquisition 
as  well  as  his  inheritance,  it  is  only  one  new  element,  the  rime, 
which  he  elects  to  make  a  vital  part  of  his  technique.  The 
rhythms  of  his  national  poetry  are  too  strong  in  him  to  be  up- 
rooted. Its  oldest  forms  come  most  naturally  from  his  hand ;  its 
newer,  more  expanded  lines  he  receives  from  his  contemporaries, 
develops  and  makes  his  own  under  a  new  necessity  for  fuller 
speech,  and  occasionally  oversteps  with  a  liberty  born  of  a  new 
example.  The  verse  that  results  is  not  unique,  for  the  influences 
that  formed  it  played  upon  his  fellows  also.  They  stand  together 
as  representatives  of  an  old  order  still  unconquered,  yet  bearing 
the  sure  signs  of  a  future  inevitable  yielding  to  the  new. 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

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